The European Union’s foreign economic policies. A principal-agent perspective.

The European Union is a key actor in international economic governance. Through its foreign economic policies it plays a central role in the negotiation of international trade agreements, the global regulation of the financial services sector, and the provision of aid to developing countries. This book shows how principal-agent theory can be used to shed new light on this complex of policy areas.

In particular, the contributions to this volume analyze delegation, control, and agent strategies in a variety of principal-agent relationships shaping the EU’s foreign economic policies: mainly those involving interest groups and governments; governments and the European Commission; and the European Union and international organizations.

The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, offer empirically-rich studies of various areas of the EU’s external economic relations including trade, financial regulation, accounting standards and global regulation through the G7/G8. The book is aimed at researchers and advanced students interested in the EU, international economic relations, and principal-agent theory.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Contents:

1. Principals, Agents, and the European Union’s Foreign Economic Policies Andreas Dür and Manfred Elsig
2. Interest Groups and the Failure of EU Anti-Dumping Reform Dirk De Bièvre and Jappe Eckhardt
3. World Trade Organisation Judicialization and Preference Convergence in EU Trade Policy: Making the Agent’s Life Easier Arlo Poletti
4. The European Presence in Global Financial Governance: A Principal-Agent Perspective Daniel Mügge
5. Variation in EU Member States’ Preferences and the Commission’s Discretion in the Doha Round Eugénia da Conceição-Heldt
6. The European Union’s Role in the G8: A Principal-Agent Perspective Arne Niemann and Judith Huigens
7. EU, US and International Accounting Standards: A Delicate Balancing Act in Governing Global Finance Patrick Leblond